1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cellular telephone networks and, in particular, to the communication between exchanges of handoff related parameters concerning border cells.
2. Description of Related Art
In the context of inter-exchange hand-off, certain hand-off related parameters, namely the minimum signal strength required for hand-off to a cell (SSMIN), maximum allowed base station power setting (PSVB), power setting used on measurement channel (PSMB), and maximum power level at voice channel (PLVM), which are set by system operators for each cell within a given system area, must also be provided to the system operators of neighboring system areas for processing use in connection with the making of inter-exchange hand-off evaluations and determinations. Historically, these parameters have been provided to other system operators for manual input into the exchanges of their networks. Improper or incorrect manual entry of these parameters often occurs. Furthermore, updates of these parameters may not be communicated to other system operators following an initial configuration of the cellular network. In each of these cases, incorrect inter-exchange hand-off evaluations and determinations may occur due to the use of incorrect hand-off related parameters. A more efficient, accurate and trustworthy method is thus needed for passing these parameters between system operators and, in particular, between exchanges serving system area border cells.